When school ended, Cricket gloomily got on and off the bus, and walked into her house. She relieved the babysitter of her duty, peeked in on Bumblebee having her nap, and trekked up the stairs to her room. She flopped onto her bed after tossing her book bag onto a beanbag chair. She didn't feel ready for homework yet.

Are the others home? Her mom wouldn't be here for another hour or two. Bumblebee wasn't up from her nap yet and homework could wait. She sent an experimental text in the groupchat.

If no one answered, she might be able to encourage herself to work on homework. She retrieved the abandoned homework and dumped it on the desk. She scanned its contents.

"A science essay, a book report, a math test, history reading..." She picked up a pencil and started on the book report, possibly the least gloomy of the bunch. But when she started writing, The Tale of Two Cities was forgotten and she filled the page with,

I hate Bombardier. I hate Bombardier. I hate Bombardier. He thinks I'd go to the stupid dance with his stupid self? He's got another stupid think coming. I'd rather not go to the dance at all than go with him. It's not like I had anyone to go with anyway.

Blue floated through her mind. What about Blue?

"Probably already has a date." She muttered to the lamp on her desk. "Someone with pretty eyes, or hair. Someone who isn't the target of the biggest jerkwad in the school."

The lamp made no answer.

Cricket went back to her paper.

I hate Bombardier. I hate Bombardier. I hate him so much, I could flush him down the toilet like the crap he is. I hate

But she was cut off by the doorbell ringing. Running downstairs in the lightest foot falls possible as to not wake her sister, she opened the door.

"Reinforcements have arrived." Sundew said, her wavy hair fluttering in the breeze. "Figured you could use support."

Cricket smiled weakly and opened the door wider to let the amazon in. "Just be quiet, Bumblebee is still sleeping."

Sundew nodded and they crept up the stairs to Cricket's room. Sundew glanced at the paper on her desk and smirked. "You can't even have poor handwriting when your mad, can you?" She picked up the paper. "Nice wording here, he is a piece of crap."

Cricket flopped on her bed again, and stared up at the ceiling.

"Why me?" Cricket groaned. "Why does that acidic classmate target me?"

"Probably because your pretty." Sundew said simply as she sat on the beanbag chair. Cricket stared at her. "What? You are! Well, maybe not as pretty as Willow, but beauty is relative. I'm probably biased on Willow, though."

Cricket laughed. "True."

"So, what are you going to do?" Sundew asked, fiddling with her shoe lace. "About Bombardier?"

"I wish I knew! If he had said what he would do, I could probably defend myself appropriately. But he didn't say."

"Well, make sure no one ever wants to go to the dance with you, is kinda vague. But I'd guess he's probably just gonna try and spread a few rumors about you." Sundew shrugged. "How bad can that be?"

Cricket's phone vibrated and she checked it.

Cricket couldn't help smiling at Blue's readiness to help. She saw Sundew check her phone as well, and she must've seen the look on Cricket's face.

"Do you like Blue?" She asked seriously, with just a hint of tease in her eyes.

Cricket felt her face flush. "What? Blue? Well, I don't know, it's weird."

"How?" Sundew was grinning now. "You like him, he likes you, ta-da! Dating!" Sundew tossed her hands in the air.

"It's not that easy! I don't even thinks he likes me back, and I don't know how to ask." Cricket tugged on a loose curl in front of her face.

"It was that easy for me and Willow." Sundew replied. "And asking is simple enough, there are loads of ways to do it."

"But what if I'm only a friend to him? What if I ruin our friendship by asking?" Cricket fretted. It looked like Sundew was biting her lip, but she couldn't tell.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be worried about that if I were you." Sundew said.

"Why not?"

"Well, does Blue seem like the kind of person to throw away a great friendship just because of a silly little crush?"

Cricket thought for a moment. "No." She said. And that's why I like him so much.

"CRICKETTTT!" They heard someone yell from down the hall.

"Bumblebee is up." Cricket said simply and went to retrieve her. She came back with the happy toddler in her arms.

"Hi!" Bumblebee waved at Sundew happily. Cricket put Bumblebee down and she ran over to the beanbag chair.

"Bumblebee, can you say Sundew?" Cricket asked her sister, sitting back down on her bed.

"Snudoo!" Bumblebee patted the girl's knee and giggled.

"No, Sundew." Sundew pronounced.

"Snudoo!" She said again, and crawled onto the beanbag and tried to sit on Sundew's lap. Sundew resisted this by standing up rather quickly. "Snudoo!" The toddler cried mournfully, reaching her little arms towards her.

"Bumblebee, come sit with me." Cricket patted her lap in an attempt to lure Bumblebee away.

"Snudoo!" She flopped on the beanbag with the biggest frown a toddler could muster. Sundew challenged it with one of her own. Cricket gave Sundew a pleading look.

"Fine." Sundew came back to the beanbag. "Scooch over." When she sat down, Bumblebee crawled into her lap.

"She likes you, Sundew." Cricket smiled at her.

"Well, either loves me or hates me, I can't tell which." She then spoke to Bumblebee. "Your lucky, you know that? You don't have homework or school dances or jerks to put up with." Sundew thought for a moment. "Well, besides me you don't have any jerks to put up with."

Cricket laughed, but was all too soon reminded of the school dance and Bombardier.

"What's the best way to counter bullies?" Cricket asked.

"Well, all my methods involve knives, but I think if you ask any teacher, they'll say just be nice to them and they'll be nice back!" Sundew raised her voice to an annoyingly squeaky pitch.

"But if I'm nice to Bombardier, he'll think I'm giving in and might even think I like him." The thought made her want to puke.

"Bumblebee, can you say, Bombardier deserves a long and painful existence?" Sundew asked the toddler in her lap in a sweet voice that sounded norhing like Sundew.

"Bombadee eserfs a long y pangful exisftance!" She said, happy to please Sundew.

"Please don't teach her that." Cricket asked.

"Too late." Sundew laughed as Bumblebee started chanting the line of jibberish with all the enthusiasm one would expect her to have about a popsicle, and not vengeance.

The sound of the front door opening made both girls jump up (Sundew carrying Bumblebee) and come down the stairs to meet Katydid.

"Hello girls, nice to see you, Sundew. Oh, I hope Bumblebee wasn't a problem." Katydid went to take the toddler from Sundew's arms.

"Not at all." Cricket said happily.

"I should probably be going." Sundew looked at her watch. "We'll talk later, right?" She made a hand motion that could only mean she was referring to Bombardier.

"Definately. Thanks for comming over." Cricket said as Sundew left the house.